Case Study: How Asendia AI Helped Cactus AI Hire a Top LLM Engineer in Less Than a Week

Key Highlights

• Reduced hiring time from weeks to days for a specialized Senior AI Engineer position
• Screened 600+ applicants efficiently using AI-powered 15-minute interviews
• Identified exceptional talent that scored outside top 10% in traditional assessments
• Saved 80+ hours of interview time for non-technical founders
• Achieved better cultural fit and technical assessment through holistic candidate evaluation

Executive Summary

This case study explores how Asendia AI's AI-powered interview platform helped Cactus AI, an early-stage startup, efficiently identify and hire an exceptional Senior AI Engineer specializing in LLMs. By leveraging Asendia AI's comprehensive assessment technology, Cactus AI was able to screen candidates more effectively, uncovering valuable insights beyond traditional evaluation methods, and make a strategic hire in under a week.

The Challenge

In October 2024, Cactus AI faced a critical hiring challenge. As a rapidly growing AI startup, they needed to quickly find a Senior AI Engineer with specialized LLM expertise who would not only bring technical prowess but also align with their company culture and vision. Their co-founder, James, was dealing with over 600 applicants, lacked technical expertise to properly evaluate candidates, had limited resources for conducting thorough interviews, needed to assess both technical skills and cultural fit, and was under pressure to fill the position quickly.

The Solution: Asendia AI's Assessment Platform

Cactus AI implemented Asendia AI's comprehensive technical assessment platform. Candidates created accounts, submitted resumes, and participated in 15-minute AI-driven interviews focused on their LLM expertise. The platform provided real-time assessment of technical knowledge with dynamic questioning, generated comprehensive transcripts and automated assessments of technical proficiency and communication skills, and evaluated both hard and soft skills to create holistic candidate profiles.

Implementation Process

Cactus AI integrated with the Asendia AI platform in less than a day, invited all applicants to complete the assessment, conducted simultaneous AI-driven interviews to eliminate scheduling bottlenecks, received comprehensive reports within hours, and focused human review efforts only on top candidates identified by the system.

Results and Impact

The implementation dramatically reduced screening time from weeks to days, identified an exceptional engineer whose unique qualities might have been missed by traditional methods, saved an estimated 80+ hours of interview time, and provided insights beyond what resumes and coding tests revealed. The most significant outcome was discovering Saif, their new AI Engineer. Despite not scoring in the top 10% on traditional coding tests, Asendia AI's assessment revealed his deep conceptual understanding of LLM architectures, creative problem-solving approach, excellent communication skills, and strong values alignment with Cactus AI's mission.

Client Testimonials

"For an early-stage startup, hiring isn't just about skills—it's about culture fit. As Sam Altman puts it, prioritize values and aptitude first; skills can follow. Asendia AI gave us the tools to uncover personalities aligned with our vision, something traditional methods alone couldn't achieve."
- James, Co-founder of Cactus AI

"Without Asendia AI, we might have missed out on one of our best-ever hires. Although his coding test scores weren't in our top 10%, Asendia's AI-driven insights revealed exceptional qualities beyond technical assessments. Our new AI Engineer, Saif, demonstrated that traditional coding tests don't fully capture what modern AI roles truly require."
- James, Co-founder of Cactus AI

"As non-technical founders sorting through over 600 applicants, we needed a smarter, faster way to identify top talent. Asendia AI streamlined our hiring process, pinpointing the top 1% of candidates so we could focus our human screening efforts on the most promising hires."
- James, Co-founder of Cactus AI

Key Differentiators of the Asendia AI Approach

• Goes beyond technical assessment to evaluate the whole candidate
• Provides unbiased and consistent evaluation across candidates
• Handles hundreds of interviews simultaneously
• Delivers detailed reports with specific insights
• Allows hiring teams to focus on high-value conversations with pre-qualified candidates

Lessons Learned

The Cactus AI case revealed that traditional metrics aren't sufficient for identifying exceptional candidates, cultural fit is crucial for startups, AI-driven interviews provide valuable insights when used thoughtfully, and fast hiring doesn't require sacrificing quality.

Conclusion

The partnership between Asendia AI and Cactus AI demonstrates how AI-augmented hiring processes can dramatically improve recruitment outcomes for technical roles. By providing deep insights into candidates' capabilities, streamlining assessment, and helping identify exceptional talent that might otherwise be overlooked, Asendia AI enabled Cactus AI to make a strategic hire in record time, offering a more efficient, effective, and insightful approach to technical hiring.

P.S.
Interested in transforming your hiring process? Book a demo with Asendia AI here.